Cecilia Bartoli joins maestro Nikolaus Harnoncourt and his Concentus Musicus Wien in a scintillating performance of Cantatas by Haydn, together with his ‘Oxford’ Symphony. Recorded live at the Styriarte Festival in the Stefaniensaal, the perfect backdrop for this historically significant event.

TV Director: Brian Large

This product is also available as part of the box set - Cecilia Bartoli sings Mozart & Haydn...

IN REHEARSAL - Cecilia Bartoli and Nikolaus Harnoncourt discuss the music of Haydn and work on performances in rehearsal STYRIARTE: PORTRAIT OF A FESTIVAL - Short film on the renowned festival founded by Harnoncourt in his home town of Graz Full colour, 28 page Illustrated booklet in English, French and German

Reviews ‘A cracker of a concert, seductively low-lit, well shot and edited, well recorded. …Nikolaus Harnoncourt and his Vienna period band first treat Graz’s fine Stefaniensaal to a provocative Oxford Symphony, highly coloured and contrasted, the opening melting, the Adagio martial, the minuet a tease, the finale fierily fugal. Then, Cecilia Bartoli all but steals the show with two of Haydn’s most dramatic heroines, not from operas but from scenas, depicting the despair of Ariadne, abandoned by Theseus and Berenice, about to become Demetrio’s widow. As usual, she gives her all – and more – and you can’t help but love her.’ BBC Music Magazine

'Bartoli produces some lovely singing in these moving Haydn showpieces… Arianna… it’s two arias… are written to tax both vocal technique and emotional expression – ideal territory for Bartoli. Video allows us to enjoy her interpretation to the full; fervent, committed, but intensely natural; never supercharged in the manner of, say, Jessye Norman, and consequently all the more involving. She produces some melting mezza voce, and exploits her burnished-bronze tone beautifully in the final desolate aria. In Berenice, equally angst-ridden but more introverted, she is still more straightforward, yet never forfeits the audience’s attention… production values are superb, with excellent surround sound and Brian Large’s atmospheric visuals, using new technology to capture the mellow dimmed light of the concert hall and avoid the unnatural glare which so often wrecks the ambience of videoed concerts… once again, even the booklet notes are good.' The Gramophone

'He did not run away from danger. He lived with danger.' And Cecilia Bartoli nods wisely as the Master speaks of Haydn in the 'In Rehearsal' bonus that comes with this DVD… it’s an emotional edginess that makes Bartoli's performance of the cantata Arianna a Naxos so remarkable, an artist running to embrace danger you might say… How thrilling that extraordinary series of chromatic chords sounds as Arianna climbs the hill, only to see the faithless Theseus escaping in his ship. Bartoli relishes the drama of the situation, reserving a special intensity for the two recitatives, angrily demanding that Theseus must hear her, in the second, and then dropping into a thrilling mezza voce as she announces that her trembling soul grows faint. For the final aria, 'Ah che morir vorrei', she produces a flood of exquisitely rounded tone as the abandoned princess acknowledges her fate… The concert begins with Harnoncourt leading his own Vienna Concentus Music through a compelling, if faster-than-usual performance of Haydn's Oxford Symphony. As ever, it's orchestral balance and the carefully judged dynamics that make a Harnoncourt performance so gripping. The hushed introduction to the opening movement is as tightly coiled as a spring, before it's ambushed by the whole orchestra. And the hunting horns – unvalved horns, of course – are properly resonant in the Minuet. It's a delight to watch Harnoncourt working with his own players, peremptory gazes from those bulging eyes and a feathery gesture from the left hand to bring in the flute.' International Record Review